A cloud of dust and fragments boiled out as Elem flailed with her arms. In a moment she had broken through the thick barrier and found herself staring down at two of the Daughters of Life—as startled at her presence as she was at theirs.

“Don’t gape like fargi,” Ambalasi ordered, with accompanying gestures of silence and speed of movement. “Wake everyone, command them to join me here. They must come quickly and in absolute silence.”

The first of the Daughters appeared in the growing light and Ambalasi ordered them forward. “You,” she said to the first arrival, “stand by this opening and sign all that come to follow those before her. When all are through follow them yourself. You others follow me.”

She turned and led the way through the wakening city, all of the Daughters following her in silent progression. The few Yilanè they passed ignored them; lacking all curiosity. Only the fargi took interest and many of them joined the procession, eager to see and learn new things. The sun was well above the horizon when Ambalasi halted the march at the waterfront, behind the rounded warehouses, and passed on the order to send Enge to her.

“Come with me and do not speak,” she responded to Enge’s interrogative, then led the way out of the shadows toward the high fin of the nearest uruketo. A crewmember had just appeared above, eyes slitted in the morning sun, and Ambalasi called out to her.

“Commander’s presence before me ordered immediately.”

The crewmember vanished from sight and a few moments later the commander climbed down and jumped from the back of the gently rocking uruketo to the rough wood of the dock.

“Orders to be obeyed at once,” Ambalasi said, with modifiers of urgency. “Go to the Eistaa.”

The commander signalled assent as she hurried away. When she was out of sight Ambalasi spoke to the curious crewmembers on top of the fin above. “Onto the dock, everyone aboard. There are others coming and I do not want you in the way.” She turned to Enge as the first of them began climbing down. “Now—bring them all at once. But stop the fargi—there is no room for them. When the eistaa questions the commander she will know at once that something is wrong. We must be gone by then.”

Ambalasi, never known for her patience, prowled the dock as the Daughters hurried by. She signed the curious crewmembers to move back, then signalled presence-needed, first to Enge, then to Elem.

“We leave as soon as the last one is aboard. And we leave without the crew. You will be commander, Elem, since you informed me that you served on an uruketo.” She cut off the other’s protest with a sharp command. “I have watched the commander work. It is not a skilled occupation. You will teach others what they must know.”

“There is risk in this,” Enge said.